N-A-I-T-O-N-A-L?

Spelling whoops for the National Spelling Bee

Spelling mistakes are extremely common these days. Just a slip of the keyboard and you’ve got yourself a brand new word.

In the June 4 print and web edition of The Washington Post (for print, Style Section, Page C-4), a blurb promoting the Scripps National Spelling Bee was misspelled to say “Scripps Naitonal Spelling Bee.”

You may look at that and say "naitonal" doesn’t sound familiar, and that’s because it isn’t a real word, at least according to dictionary.com.

With the frequency of spelling errors (even on our own website) it would be wrong to fault the Post, but of all the topics in the world, this would be the one you would definitely want to get correct.

Now, the Post is not alone; in a Google search for "naitonal," a handful of results pop up, including a document by the "Naitonal" Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And hey, even the Washington Nationals have had trouble spelling the word.

In the spirit of the spelling bee, here's some of the most misspelled words starting with the letter "N," according to commonlymisspelledwords.com:

  • narrative: The narrator gives the narrative. Drop the –tor and add the –tive. 
  • naturally: Naturally means occurring in nature, however, when spelling it drop the –e to add the suffix –ally.
  • negotiable: To negotiate the offer must be negotiable. Again, drop the –ate and add the –able.
  • neighbor: Neighbors never seem to follow the rules and neither does the spelling of this word. Although there's an –n and no –c, this word requires you to put the -e before the –i . 
  • nevertheless: Like lengthwise and nowadays, the words that make up nevertheless can be used alone but when you use them all together, it's all one word. 
  • night: Although some poets prefer the for ‘nite' the correct spelling of this word uses an –igh to creat the long –i sound. Also, think: It's eight (8) with the –e replaced with an –n. 
  • nowadays: Like lengthwise and nevertheless the 2 words and an article that make up this word stand alone just fine, but when used all together it is one word. 
  • naive: Don't be naive about this word, it's n-a-i-v-e.
  • necessary: To keep warm in the winter, it's necessary your coat have one collar and 2 sleeves.
  • no one: No one can make this one word.
  • noticeable: The -e in this word is very noticeable.
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